that is not there.

I'm referring to your constant sweeping attacks on Appalachia as a region, and your refusal to acknowledge important historical and cultural differences.

Remember Ohio? You argued that the "numbers" in southern Ohio proved the area is racist, a position that is just ludicrous given that BOTH of the Underground Railroad museums are located here, along with a slew of long-standing mixed race churches, elected black mayors, etc.

I tried to explain that southern Ohioans had overwhelmingly supported John Edwards and had flipped to Clinton not out of racism but because Obama has failed to develop a rural campaign strategy. I pointed to the 4% vote for Edwards in southern Ohio. You dismissed those Edwards votes as a sign of stupidity in the population.

Well, guess what? West Virginians, much later in the game, voted 7% for Edwards. Are they almost twice as stupid as the people in southern Ohio? Is that what the numbers show?

Or perhaps the numbers show, as I said after Ohio, that Obama continues to lack a rural strategy? West Virginians sent him a message. Obama supporter Tanya Acker got that messages and said it on CNN last night: We need to develop a rural strategy for the November campaign. That's the mission -- your racist straw-men are unhelpful.